Digital Inclusion Board is Southside heavy

BY DENNIS GEISENGER

Half of the 14 members of the newly appointed Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Advisory Board are veteran Southside activists and educators.

Standish Ericsson Neighborhood Association activist Kurt Kimber, Pillsbury United Communities Waite House's John M. Richard, University of Minnesota Cancer Center's Peter Fleck, Brian Coyle Community Center's Amanuel Godefa, Hosmer Technology and Learning Center's James Nicholson, Progressive Technology Project's Arif Mamdani, and 8th Ward City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden have all been named.

Announced at a Wireless Minneapolis kickoff event at the downtown library in the middle of last month, the board members will "both develop fund guidelines and oversee re-granting of digital inclusion funds to local nonprofit organizations," according to a request for City Council Ways and Means Committee action prepared last year by the director of the Minneapolis Technology Empowerment Project, Catherine Settanni.

US Internet, the city's partner in its wireless internet initiative, has already provided $500,000 for "digital inclusion," a plan to bring Minneapolis residents on the wrong side of the technological divide into the fold. As part of the deal for using the city's existing fiber-optic infrastructure and a commitment to serve as builder and maintainer of the citywide wireless network, US Internet has committed more than $10 million over the next ten years for education programs and affordable computer hardware and software.

Community "portal pages" will also serve as web representatives for local neighborhood and community organizations. The portals will coincide with the six wireless construction phases (Downtown, Midtown, Southwest, North, Northeast and South). Wireless service has already begun in the Downtown and Seward-Riverside areas, and Midtown is being wired now. Nokomis neighborhoods should see service by Thanksgiving.

Kimber, who is the principal IP design engineer for a Bloomington firm that manufactures semiconductors, lives in the Southside's Standish Ericsson neighborhood and has been a voice in his community's progress.
Richard, Godefi and Nicholson are experienced in teaching adults how to use computers, and Fleck, Mamdani and Glidden used their experience to formulate the direction for wireless network deployment.

Other new board members brought their skills to bear in helping to realize a first of its kind: municipal/private partnership bringing the advantages of computer technology to an entire population. Nan Miller coordinates family engagement in education for Minneapolis Public Schools. Mark Siegel is a lawyer and policy consultant who works to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities.

Rafael Morataya is a representative for Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26 that serves more than 6,600 members, and Patricia Nelson works for the state chapter of Volunteers of America.

Malik Bush and Damaris Fredell own computer system and software companies, and Joe Caldwell is co-founder and CEO of US Internet.

Begun in 1995 as three guys in the basement of a house, Minnetonka's US Internet employs around 100 people and has offices in Singapore. Although favored from the get-go because they are a local company, executives from the firm say that they got the job because they listened to what Minneapolis wanted-a network that could support voice and video that could support consumers and businesses, public safety, and a way to bridge the digital divide.